Saturday, October 15, 2011

UnKnown Knowns

To the more part of men this is the one virtue, to be rich; all else, it would seem, is nothing worth, not though thou hadst the wisdom of great Rhadamanthus, and wert more knowing than Aeolus' son Sisyphus, whose wheedling words persuaded Persephone who giveth men forgetfulness by doing despite to their wits, so that through his wilinesses he returned even from Hades, a thing which hath been contrived of none other, whosoever hath once been veiled in the black cloud of Death and gone to the shadowy place of the departed, passing the black portal which for all their denial of guilt prisoneth the souls of the dead; yet e'en thence, 't would seem, to the light of the Sun came hero Sisyphus back by his own great cunning; —nor yet though thou madest lies like true words with the good tongue of godlike Nestor, and wert nimbler of foot than the swift Harpies and the Children of Boreas whose feet are so forthright. Nay, every man should lay to heart this saying: What hath most power for all is wealth.